Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 353 Entries. Thursday, January 1 View Page Go. MICHIGAN STATE !!!!!!   Thursday, January 1 View Page Loved this picture from mike_s. Diary ! Workers are ready to work the feilds !   Saturday, January 3 View Page First thing is to know were to find the pollen ! When a tomato flower opens, you need to know the differance between the petals and the anther cone. The pollen is on the inside of the anther cone only ! Their is no pollen on the outside of the anther cone. And the petals have no pollen at all.   Saturday, January 3 View Page Here is a illustrated picture of a tomato flower.   Saturday, January 3 View Page The first thing that i do is to cut the anther cone off both the pollinated flower and the donor flower. I sugest using tweesers for this as i find to difficult to do it with my fingers.   Saturday, January 3 View Page After i cut off the anther cone, the pistil is now exposed. Then i take the pollen on the donor anther cone and place in or rub it onto the pistil of the tomato that you are tring to cross polinate. Remember the pollin is only on the inside of the anther cone, not the out side.   Saturday, January 3 View Page This is only two days after being pollinated . Notice the other flower did not self pollinate indoors. It eventually ends up dying.   Saturday, January 3 View Page This is 5 days after pollinating, notice the other flower never took.   Sunday, January 4 View Page These are the products that im going to use on my tomato expeirment. I am going to apply them on every watering.   Sunday, January 4 View Page This was taken on dec 7 i should have started when i planted the seed, but i was just testing to see if the seed was any good. It was only when i liked the way it was growing that i began to take pictures. So i really dont know when i planted the seed? I think it was around nov 1   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 12 here is a close up of how it wonts to branch out allready. The buds are the size of a pin head only. This plant is being grown under a halogen lamp. I really dont expect alot being that im growing it in a pot and under a lamp. But i wont to see if i can learn anything about over usage of these products im using.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 18 here is a picture of the plant after i transplanted it into a 2 gallon pot. This will be the finnal pot size because i really dont have room for this to get that big.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 21 this was the day the flower opened and day one of pollination   Sunday, January 4 View Page Again the pollination. The reason you wont to remove the anther cone is to prevent a self pollination.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 25 day 4 wow the pollination took fast. The other flower did nothing.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 28 day 7 the tomato is getting bigger. As you can see the other flower didnt self pollinate indoors. Without help from nature it probably won't.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 31 day 10 its really growig nice for a indoor tomato. Notice that i removed the other flower because it never took.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Dec 31 here is the plant size. This will be as tall as it will get. I have allready topped it and im letting some of the branches to grow. About 5 leafs per branch and top them too. I figure fore a plant this small that i could use some extra foliage to feed the tomato.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Current day jan 4 day 14 the tomato is now the size of this yellow golf ball. Looks like its doing prety good concidering its under a plant light.   Tuesday, January 6 View Page Here are some of the seeds i have to choose from. I think that i will plant the 1317 clementz, but i do have the 1947.5 clementz. Comming to and hopfully the 705 Debacco too. Im planning to put a little more red into the. 1947 clementzs. Its allready a bute !!!   Tuesday, January 6 View Page I also have to thank doug english for his 279.5 bushel gourd seed.   Tuesday, January 6 View Page These are some of the tomatoes i plan to crosspollinate this summer. I will probably use the real MacCoy my thorough bread of tomatoes in many of my crosses of course.   Thursday, January 8 View Page Crazy growers in germany was kind enough to send me information on the daily weigh gains on beni meier pumpkin last year. Thank you very much crazy growers.   Thursday, January 8 View Page Day 18 my tomato is making slow but steady progress, again not expecting much, but it gives me something to do this winter.   Thursday, January 8 View Page Here is how the plant looks.   Thursday, January 8 View Page Here is a dwarf cana that i brought in for the winter   Thursday, January 8 View Page Here is a cut leaf colious plant that i have had for 3 years. I didn't think an annual plant could last like this ?   Thursday, January 8 View Page Here is a closer look.   Thursday, January 8 View Page Just received these in the mail today, thank again matt   Thursday, January 8 View Page This is my plan for big and orange this year !   Thursday, January 8 View Page Hete is a picture of matt with his 705 (811 gerhardt x 2009 wallace)   Thursday, January 8 View Page Crazy Growers Seminar with Beni Meier hosting   Thursday, January 8 View Page Picture 1   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic.2   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic3   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic4   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic5   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic 6   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic7   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic8   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic9   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic10   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic11   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic12   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic13   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic14   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic15   Thursday, January 8 View Page Festival pic   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic2   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic3   Thursday, January 8 View Page Pic4   Thursday, January 8 View Page Last pic.   Thursday, January 8 View Page And this is bubba one month before picking. That is a bug screen not plastic covering his pumpkin.   Thursday, January 8 View Page Here is the weight gains chart again. It looks to me that beni kept solid 30 lbs a day till day 65 and then it began to slow down quickly after that   Thursday, January 8 View Page My garden in the woods. This is my personal best 650 lbs. You can see why i need a bug screen growing in the woods.   Thursday, January 8 View Page My 16'-6" sunflower in 2002. This was before all the deer, squirrels, ground hogs found out how good they tasted.   Thursday, January 8 View Page I missed this picture of the split in the 2328   Friday, January 9 View Page here are some growing tips from beni meier ! i canot enlarge this page, i hope that everyone can do this on their own computer ?   Friday, January 9 View Page He is an article on beni meier growing his 2096.6, 2103 and his 2323.sorry about how small it is, i hope that everyone can enlarge the article on their own computer.   Friday, January 9 View Page Beni did try to patch up the split, but i have no idea when this occured. It may have occured aug 21, but i am just guessing like everyone else.   Sunday, January 11 View Page Day 21 not bad still growing steady, but i have developed a bad spider mite problem on my banana tree which is mixed with all my orher plants. I cant figure out where they come from this late into the winter ? It happens. Every year.   Sunday, January 11 View Page Here is the full plant   Sunday, January 11 View Page The size compaired to my hand. Its allwats hard to dshow the size without some kind of scale   Sunday, January 11 View Page I found this to be the best way to get rid of spider mite. AzaMax its the only product that has worked indoors without seriously harming the plants.   Sunday, January 11 View Page Some reason this picture did not go up   Monday, January 12 View Page Day 22 its at 9.5" my goal is to hit 15" that is the 1 pound mark !!!   Friday, January 16 View Page Day 26 now at 10.5" about. .25" a day ?   Friday, January 16 View Page The plant is stessing out now, some of it is natural ageing, and mostly poor lighting and growing conditions. I was hoping that the heavy feeding could over ride the poor conditions, but it doesn't look like it.   Sunday, January 18 View Page Here is my Bromeliad i have had for over 10 years. This is the 7th and 8th bloom that i have had in all those years. Not bad concidering that it takes around 3 years for each stem to bloom.   Sunday, January 18 View Page Here is the bace of the plant. If you notice, once a stem blooms out, it will eventually die off and it will send out new stems. Eventually you cut off the old stems once they start dying whitch my last another year after it blooms. If you notice their are 6 other stumps that have been removed through the years.   Sunday, January 18 View Page Here is an all femame seedless cucumber that i grew in a pot last summer, this was just the first 5 cucumbers out of the 16 this one plant grew before spider might damaged it buy early august.   Monday, January 19 View Page Here is an artichoke that i grew 2 years ago, the artichoke is just a big flower bud. The artichoke is related to the thissle weed and looks alot like a gaint dandy lion !   Monday, January 19 View Page You would think that since the artichoke is such a large bud, that the flower would be gigantic.!!!! Well here is that gigantic flower that everyone was waiting for !!! Lol.....:)   Monday, January 19 View Page This was my personal best watermelon 2 years ago at 155 lbs   Monday, January 19 View Page This is my personal best long gourd at 100"   Monday, January 19 View Page This is my personal biggest bush to trim !!! Lol.... its a 25 foot norway spruce. You need the proper tools to due this job ! :)   Wednesday, January 21 View Page Well this is a scale ro show how big it is.   Wednesday, January 21 View Page Day 31 growing prety slow now at 11" dont expect it to reach 15" but it still not bad.   Wednesday, January 28 View Page Day 38 almost 12"now slow but still growing.   Wednesday, January 28 View Page A new scale for size ! Im now using an apple !!!   Wednesday, January 28 View Page It thw size of an apple now !!!   Wednesday, January 28 View Page Hans-peter shiffer hold the record for tallest sunflower 28'-8" in 2013 here is a picture of his 2009 sunflowers   Wednesday, January 28 View Page Trying to keep up with IanP. I may need a little more financing !!! Lol......:-)   Wednesday, January 28 View Page This is only a bug screen, but i may try some plastic this spring. I intend to build a larger one to hold 2-3 plants this year.   Monday, February 2 View Page Time to clean the snow !!! We got 16.7"of snow last night.   Tuesday, February 3 View Page Day 44 it grew 1/2" in the last 6 days, slow but steady now at 12.25"   Wednesday, February 4 View Page He is a google map of my garden in the woods. The circle #1 is the garden and circle #2 is the water that i have to use, its about 100 yards apart   Wednesday, February 4 View Page Here is a little closer look !   Wednesday, February 4 View Page And the close up look. The size is 50'x100' about 5000 sq.ft. but i use 75% of it for vegetables. I once had the police spot it from the air and the next day they snuck it threw the woods on horse back to check it out for groeing pot plants !!! I mean hoo grows vegetables and pumpkins in the middle of a woods anyhow ??? Lol.......:-)   Wednesday, February 4 View Page Here is something new for me this year, im going to try growing gaint carrot and gaint onion this year and a gaint cabbage.   Friday, February 6 View Page At day 47 its almost at 12.5" and the first hint of color. This seed came from my 2.5lbs tomato last year and that seed was the 4.57 MacCoy so their is a little pink in it.   Monday, February 9 View Page Day 50 almost their ! I guess by this weekend it may. be ready. I supose that i will prune it back and give it another try, but if i need the space in april it will probably get pushed aside.   Wednesday, February 11 View Page Just got these seeds from the SESDGPG and john young the other day, thanks to everyone   Wednesday, February 11 View Page And here is the gaint cabbage.   Wednesday, February 11 View Page I may have a trophy for the largest moth !!! It has a wing span of 12.5" glad this isn't a vine bore moth, it could do some real damage.   Wednesday, February 11 View Page He is a picture of bill edwards 316 lbs watermelon at harnica farms. It was cool and damp out so i didn't realize my phone camera was foggy.   Wednesday, February 11 View Page He is a picture of me trying to steal chris kents 350 lbs watermelon Lol.... :-) i had a chance to see it when bubba was taking it the the new york botanical gardens for chris to show.   Wednesday, February 11 View Page Opps, posted the wrong date earlyer. Im trying something new this year, gaint onion, gaint carrot, and gaint cabbage.   Thursday, February 12 View Page A little taste of summer in february when its 12° outside !   Thursday, February 12 View Page I reached my goal of one pound ! Not bad for growing. Under a grow light with the wrong light spectrum. !!!   Thursday, February 12 View Page Yes i had to cut it back ! I didn't have the room to let it grow any bigger, so i figured that i would cut it back and see what happens.   Friday, February 13 View Page Can i enter this in early tomatoes 2015 ? I think that this qualifies as an early tomato !!! I like to know how long it would hold onto the #1 spot before someone can knock it off ? Lol..... this will probably be my biggest highlight of the year !!! :-)   Friday, February 13 View Page Last year we had all the snow ! It was hard to pull out of your own driveway because the snowbanks were taller then your car. You had to peek around the snowbank before you even pulled out of your own driveway !   Friday, February 13 View Page My cat wasn't going anywhere !   Sunday, February 15 View Page Its -9 this morming ! Time to fing that groundhog phil and make sure that he never sees his shadow again !   Sunday, February 15 View Page Ok here is a photo of this little varmit !!!   Sunday, February 15 View Page What did i do ???????????   Sunday, February 15 View Page I need some protectIon !!!!!!!   Thursday, February 19 View Page Here is an amarylls plant that is blooming for the first time ! These were side shoot bulbs that came from a bigger parent bulb that i seperated two years ago. No wonder the bulbs cost $7-$12 they take many years to grow before rhey get their first blooms.   Thursday, February 19 View Page Here are some amarylls that i have started by seed !!! The leafy plants in the tray are going on their 2nd winter and the two larger bulbs in that same tray are going on their third winter,and you can see how small they are to a full sized bulb !!! It looks like they may need another 3-5 years before they get their first blooms ? You need to have a lot of patients to grow these baby's for a flower that only lasts for 5days or so !!!   Thursday, February 19 View Page Here is the picture for the post above.   Friday, February 20 View Page I decided to try spraying water on my weeping hemlock to have a layer of ice to coat the needles and branches. Last year i lost about 75% of the needles to the extreme cold and so far it looks much better than last year. You can see that their is some mild burning so i thought that iwould try this out to see if it will work !   Saturday, February 21 View Page Here is my gaint cabbage, carrot, and onion. I have never tried any of these before so lets see what happens. Im afraid that it may be to early for the cabbage, but we will find out ?   Saturday, February 21 View Page Here is a petrified Skelton of an atlantic gaint stump !!! The bottom is the roots and it goes to the first branch ! This is about 10 years old.   Monday, February 23 View Page Note to myself i planted my giant onion, carrot, and cabbage on February 14   Monday, February 23 View Page Note to self peter glazebrook started gaint onion nov. 20 gaint carrot feb 14 gaint cabbage maybe march 1   Monday, February 23 View Page Better be careful of what you feed your pumpkin ???   Saturday, February 28 View Page It been a long winter ! Lol....   Tuesday, March 3 View Page Gaint carrots ready for transplanting   Tuesday, March 3 View Page Transplanted giant carrot today   Tuesday, March 3 View Page Here is a better picture of the tube that i planted my giant carrot in the tubes are 20" long.   Tuesday, March 3 View Page The tubes are to long to stand on their own, so i decided to tape them all together   Tuesday, March 3 View Page Also transplanted giant onion today   Wednesday, March 4 View Page Here are my carrot roots, they are about 4"long   Wednesday, March 4 View Page Well i know of 4 of us growing giant carrots now. Frank and tina, dan maccoy, chris from soCal and me ! How many others out their are growing?   Wednesday, March 4 View Page Seed pods on my amarylls.! I already have about 50, 2 year old plants, i don't know what i need with more seeds ?   Wednesday, March 4 View Page Wilkes-barre PA. Winter meeting !   Wednesday, March 4 View Page Conclusion???   Thursday, March 5 View Page Even the south got hit this winter   Friday, March 6 View Page Here is my 12 lbs. Tomato.!!! Beat that Dan ! About 5 years ago i grew this 10 tomatoes on one stem that weigh 12 lbs. This was on a white variety called hughs. I will be trying this one again this year hoping that i might know what im doing this year ?   Friday, March 6 View Page sorry about how blury that tomato picture is, im had to take a pictue of a picture from my cell phone whitch couln't focus any better than that.   Friday, March 6 View Page Bought a postal and parcel scale for weighting my tomatoes this year ! It has a limit of 11 lbs. I hope that i will need a biger scale for my tomatoes LOL......:-)   Monday, March 9 View Page Gaint carrots are a little more interesting than growing cactus   Wednesday, March 11 View Page Hey pipster and bluesilver here is how we move pumpkins at all weigh offs.   Wednesday, March 11 View Page This is how i moved my pumpkin without a lifting ring. Using toestraps works best. They won't dig into the pumpkin. Heavy rope will work to.   Saturday, March 14 View Page Day 30 for gaint onion. They have between 3-4 true leaves now.   Saturday, March 14 View Page Day 30 on gaint carrot. they have 3 true leaves now   Saturday, March 14 View Page Day 30 on gaint cabbage. They now have 4 true leaves and starting their 5th. I may have planted these to early, but they are healthy and sturdy plants. I wii be setting up a cold frame in mid april, just hope they can hold on till then.   Saturday, March 21 View Page My carrots are doing prety good. This is the first time ever growing any carrots at all.   Saturday, March 21 View Page Picture didn't come up on the first post. I have spotted roots all the way to the bottom already. The Dirt is 17"deep and so are some of the roots. If you look close you may see some of them   Saturday, March 21 View Page As you can see, the corrots are now around 8"-9" tall now   Saturday, March 21 View Page Never expected to see all these roots with a carrot ? I was only expecting to see one main root not all these feeder roots ? Maybe i will have 10 main roots on each ? A mega carrot.!!!   Monday, March 23 View Page Learning alot doing these carrots in transparent tubes, the roots are already 12-18" long at this size ! I think next year i will use 36" tubes instead. Plants are really picking up speed now and i still have 6 weeks to go. Live and learn i guess.   Monday, March 23 View Page Here is a picture of the variety used in growing these gaints ! Red indeterminate is the name of these carrots. I better extend the tubes im using. I will call it root extentions........lol....:-)   Monday, March 23 View Page Well i added my root extensions !!! I added another 18" tube to the bottom half, so now the dirt depth is 35" deep. That should last another 6 weeks.   Wednesday, March 25 View Page Planted my eating tomatoes today, here are my peppers that i planted two weeks ago, will be putting them un bigger pots next week or two depending on how fast they grow. I will plant my competition tomatoes around april 15-20   Wednesday, March 25 View Page Dan MacCoy suggested that i use a post hole digger to transplant my 36" long carrots. Lol......:-) i plan on trying a few different ideas. I have noticed the people growing these 2-3 foot long ones grow them in 55gallon plastic barrals. I think that i will try either a 6"tube 3feet long or just build a container three feet high . Im also thinking of laying one on its side and planting it that way and see wnat happens, and also trim one at about 1 foot and leting it fork out with many leaders like most end up ! Im curious how they all end up at years end.   Thursday, March 26 View Page So Cal and dan, this is the carrot that we have to beat !!! Lol....good luck :-)   Wednesday, April 1 View Page I FOUND BUBBAS SECRET GARDEN !!!   Friday, April 3 View Page My amarylls seeds pods are opening up now !   Friday, April 3 View Page Gaint cabbage is doing good. About the size of a basketball now   Friday, April 3 View Page Gaint onion doing ok need to plant in November next year. Very slow.   Friday, April 3 View Page Gaint carrots are doing fine. Their about 10" now and im starting to see little carrots now about half the thickness on a pencil   Friday, April 3 View Page My peppers are looking good so far.   Friday, April 3 View Page Only two super early tomatoes planted. I did this last year and was picking tomatoes by june 12   Sunday, April 5 View Page Here is an update on my gaint carrot. I exposed a little and put a pencil their for scale to show you how it is doing.   Sunday, April 5 View Page Wow !!! Look at some of these free seeds i found at our mgpg meeting on Saturday. 811 gerhardt and 827 gerhardt what a great find for great orange !!!   Sunday, April 5 View Page I also found some old great genetics here too !!! Don't know what to do with them ? Put them in a history vault !!!   Sunday, April 5 View Page Here are some of the new great seeds that i picked up yesterday   Sunday, April 5 View Page These are the orange seeds that i have to choose from !   Friday, April 17 View Page Just got the seeds that i won in the NCAA TOURNAMENT today 2058 hawkley 2002 hawkley 1578 holub 1195 holub and the 1175 holub thanks again for all those hoo donated their seeds and thanks again to paul huffer for setting up the tournament   Monday, April 20 View Page Time to transplant tomatoes and peppers into biger pots.   Monday, April 20 View Page Here is my cold frame that i use ! I use a space heater inside to protect against frost at night   Monday, April 20 View Page Here is the inside of the cold frame ! I set the space heater for 55° and i point it upward so that the heat radiats upward and not at the plants.   Tuesday, April 21 View Page Giant carrot update ! As you can see the carrot diameter is the size of a penny now. I have no idea how long it is because the carrots never touched the clear sides like i thought they would. Maybe when i transplant them next month, i will have a better idea of how big they are ?   Wednesday, April 29 View Page Here is my 705 Dabacco day 7 from seed. I planted on april 22 and they were up in 3 days. I have only 3 plants this year. 1317 clementz 705 Debacco 559 Fraley (red-orange)   Wednesday, April 29 View Page This will be my competition tomatoes for this year. Hope to have them planted this weekend.   Thursday, April 30 View Page Just started my competition tomatoes today ? Im hoping the later start i will avoid the cool may soil and also develope a better root system planting 1"-2" plants into the ground compaired to 6"-10" plants.   Friday, May 1 View Page Gaint cabbage is much bigger than the gaint pumpkins ! I don't expect that to last much longer.   Saturday, May 9 View Page Here is my 705 Dabacco its now the size of my gaint cabbage. My pumpkin is in a 5 gallon pot.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Time to plant my gaint carrots. I have been so busy with work the last 6 weeks that everything has been neglected. I had a bad case of spider mites on my carrots and lack of water and fertilizer that i probably lost 3 weeks on their growing. But they should get back on schedule now.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Im planting them in a garbage can that i cut off the bottom and flipped it up side down so that the wide end is at the bottom. This way i can just slip the can off when i go to harvest them. Here i took off the tape holding the tubes together and placed them into the garbage can. The carrots are already eating size. (-:   Sunday, May 24 View Page Now i back filled with dirt loosely so that i now can slip off the plastic tubes that they have been growing in.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Now they are completely planted. I think that dan has me beat already, but maybe i will have the prettiest ones. (-:   Sunday, May 24 View Page I like bubbas idea in starting these pumpkins in plastic bags, but since im growing in 5 gallon instead of 2 gallon, i use a pot for extra support.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Here i pulled off the tape on the sides and start removing the pot.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Now im starting to remove the plastic holding the roots together the root ball seems to hold together much better with this method.   Sunday, May 24 View Page The transplant is complete without disturbing the roots. I did this planting last weekend may 17   Sunday, May 24 View Page Guess hoo showed up to my garden for lunch ?   Sunday, May 24 View Page She got my 1317 clementz. Lucky for me she only ate two leaves and not the tip. This was only 3 days after planting it. I didn't have time to secure my fence or screen house, and almost payed the price !!! Now i hope its secured after today. She also are every bean plant, so now i have to replant them. O well that isn't as bad as if she would have taken all my pumpkins.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Here is my 705 Dabacco doing o.k. now. Its now the leader after the groundhog pruned my 1317 clementz.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Here is my 559 fraley, this one should be a redish orange   Monday, May 25 View Page Gaint cabbage is doing fine, im only growing 2 plants, and i gave the other 2 to my uncle ! He usually grows about 30 plants himself but he has never had such an early start on them before ? He has grown them over 50 lbs before.   Monday, May 25 View Page Carrot season is over after only one day !!! A squirrel of all things pulled out 3 of my carrots and all my gaint onions this morning! This means war !!!   Monday, May 25 View Page These were my gaint onions !!!   Monday, May 25 View Page OOH.... where are those fur barring little varmits at !!! Im aiming to make swiss cheese out of them when i find them !!!   Monday, May 25 View Page It was a nice size carrot allready, at least i got a chance to eat it. I have only one plant left and the tops were 75% TORN UP ? Hope it can make it but not getting my hopes up to high.   Monday, June 1 View Page Not texas rain, but i have an average of 5" of rain in this wheelbarrow just this week ????   Saturday, June 13 View Page I Finally caught that fur berring little varmit, so thats one down and many more to go... ?   Sunday, June 14 View Page Here is my 705 Dabacco its about 10-12' long now, plants are o.k. but a little stressed due to to much rain ! My 1317 clementz use to be the largest plant now its the smallest plant being in the wetest spot !!!   Sunday, June 14 View Page Self Pollinated this 705 Dabacco today, only a 4 lober at about 10' out ! Not sure if i will keep it yet i may wait for the next one !   Sunday, June 14 View Page Well i still have 2 carrots left after the big squirrel attack, im way behind dan MacCoys carrot, but they may still have a decent finnish. Its about the size of a 50 cent pice.   Monday, June 15 View Page We got at least 2" of rain in the last two days. You can't step off the boards in my garden or you may get stuck and loose your shoes ??? Lol.... not kidding !!!   Monday, June 15 View Page This is my first try at gaint cabbage and it seems to be growing o.k. so far ? Hope it continues and hope rhat no critters get at it !!!   Wednesday, June 17 View Page Weeded my tomato patch, i planted a little later than most, but their comming along just fine. As you can see i planted rhem up on a mound close to a foot high ! Look like with all the soaking rain we have had this year, i made the right call !!!   Wednesday, June 17 View Page Here is my zaczilla, its the only one that came up, but i hope its all i need to win the Zaczilla bragging rights !!! Lol....;-)   Wednesday, June 17 View Page As you can see, my watermellon cant handle all the rain that we have had, but i do have two others that are still going.   Thursday, June 18 View Page I thought by now that these baby rabbits would have been gone, they made a nest at the bace of one of my pumpkin plants and i have been waiting for them to leave their nest for two weeks so that i can close up my bug screen house ! But they seem to like it in their for protection i think ? As long as they don't cause any damage i will let them leave when they are ready. They are cute as long as they don't eat my pumpkin ???   Thursday, June 18 View Page Ok. Were are you, you crazy little rabbit ??? I know your in their !!!   Thursday, June 18 View Page Here is a milk crate next to my gaint cabbage for scale !   Friday, June 19 View Page How fast the weeds come back !!! I rototilled the entire garden just 10 days ago, and it needs it again. The row where my rototiller is has not been done since may 20 only one month !!!   Friday, June 19 View Page OOOH SH##T !!!! .... i caught a SKUNK. !!! The skunk promiced me the he wouldn't spray me if i let him out of the cage ???   Friday, June 19 View Page Another picture   Friday, June 19 View Page But im no dumby, im not trusting the word of a skunk ! So i made a skunk suit !!! Lol....to my suprise the skunk kepted his word and didn't spray me when i opened the cage ! Hope that i never catch another one..... (-:   Friday, June 19 View Page Mark i really need your help on this one. Could you grab this guy by the tail and spank him on his ass and tell him never to come back. Lol..... (-:   Sunday, June 21 View Page Groundhog #2 its funny, i found that if you don't clean out a cage after the last catch, that the crap or animal stench left in the cage works better than bait !!! To groundhogs and raccoons the stench left behind by the last animal smells like honey or perfume to to next critter. I catch more critters the next days than any other time.   Sunday, June 21 View Page The baby Rabbits are getting bigger now, their are 5 of them ! They probably have seen me as much as their own morher ? They probably think that im their dady and will never leave now !   Sunday, June 21 View Page Here is an unprotected field pumpkin under attack by cucumber beatles.i have them by the thousands in my garden. This is one of the reasons that i need a bug screen house to protect my gaint pumpkins   Sunday, June 21 View Page Self pollinated my 559 fraley today its a 5 lober.   Monday, June 22 View Page Groundhog #3 now im catching them ! A few years ago i cought 16 of them !!!   Tuesday, June 23 View Page My competition tomatoes are growing fast now, they should start flowering next week.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 75% of my garden is just that, a plain old garden about 25% is for gaint stuff.   Thursday, June 25 View Page Groundhog #4 this one bloodied his nose tring to get out of the trap. He also is a little smaller than the others. I have caught one every day that i set up the trap. I forgot to set it up on one day.   Saturday, June 27 View Page He is my 705 Dabacco its about 23" now, not to impressed this year, my plants are strained do to the heavy rain all year, but as small mouth luke said be happy if you have one ! My 559 Fraley plant is doing the best and has the best chance of a nice pumpkin this year. And my 1317 clements is the weekest by far ! It only has a few secondarys and streesing badly.   Saturday, June 27 View Page The winds are turning some of my squash plants over today, they are suposed to get much stronger later on. Hope i dont get to much damage from them.   Saturday, June 27 View Page Here is a mega bloom on a burpee STEAK HOUSE. Notice the entire top grew into this bud !!! Hope good things to come.   Saturday, June 27 View Page Eating tomatoes are about 4-5' tall allready   Sunday, June 28 View Page Here is how i planted my Compitition tomates 2 feet apart along a wire mesh fence. I have 30 plants. So far i like the idea of planting later. I think that you get a stronger plant with a beter root system when that first megabloom developes.   Tuesday, June 30 View Page The plant on the right is a Burpee steakhouse. Im impressed by the larger leaves and stalk.   Tuesday, June 30 View Page Here is a close up of my steakhouse trunk and mega loom.   Friday, July 3 View Page BIG CATCH TODAY a mother and baby in the cage today, never caught 2 at once before. This is the third racoon i caught this week.   Friday, July 3 View Page My 705 Dabacco is now at 38" cir. Growing slow, but it has been rather cool the last week or so, hope it picks up.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Groundhog #5 relocation program ! Lol...i have harvested more animals so far this year than vegies. 5 groundhogs 3 racoons 1 skunk and 5 baby rabbits and only Picked 5 zuchini and 1 yellow squash   Sunday, July 5 View Page Caught a BIG racoon today, 25-30 lbs that makes #4   Sunday, July 5 View Page Here is a mega bloom on my 5.30 MacCoy. The entire top is going to this flower, hope that it takes.   Monday, July 6 View Page Nice mega bloom that took on my steakhouse tomato.   Monday, July 6 View Page Here is the back view of my 5.30 maccoy. As you can see the entire stem went to the flower. I hope this one takes.   Monday, July 6 View Page Close up. !   Tuesday, July 7 View Page I caught this guy yesterday he is coon #5   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Groundhog #6 he is a big one.i think he must be their leader !!! Lol...   Tuesday, July 7 View Page This is my 705 Dabacco it at 51" or 44 lbs. Now. plants are small and pumpkins are growing slow, tough year do to heavy rains in june but at least i have some. Im only expecting them to get to 300-500 lbs. Hope that they will be howard dill winners.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here is my other pumpkin my 559 Fraley its at 41" right now and may have a little better chance at a larger size with this one. The plant is a bit larger.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page My steakhouse tomato is starting to grow now.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Look at all the cucumber beatles i get in all my squash flowers every day. I have thousands of them impossible to control. This is only one of many reasons to have a bugscreen house to protect my pumpkins and cucumbers.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page This is all i have left after a squirle attacked them back in may. One carrot and one onion. And i added a pinapple top in their for fun. They are beginning to grow nicely now, but they were severly set back when they were pulled out like they were. The others never made it.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Green peppers are doing good this year, suprized becauce of the cool wet summer.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Believe it or not, this is the smaller mega bloom on one of my 5.30 maccoys.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Im thinking of naming this steakhouse x zaczilla tomato the ROCKINATOR !!!   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Here is a nice 4 lober that i pollinated today ! Is at 44" allready.   Friday, July 10 View Page Wow one day after pollination and 7.5" lol....   Friday, July 10 View Page o.k. the hoax is up !!! :-) lm afraid if i keep up this pumpkin hoax that BUBBA and DONKIN may actually give up and pull their plants. Lol......that crapy little pumpkin only grew 7.5" in the last 2 days. I will be happy if my pumpkin even hit 500 lbs this year. Plants are small do to being to wet. But i figured that i can have a little fun makung up pictures. :-)   Friday, July 17 View Page Here is my 559 fraley ! It is now over 120 lbs and is the same size as my 705 dabacco. Both have nice shape and both are becoming more orange. Sopose to hit 90 two of the next 3 days our first little heat wave this year ! Courious what the growth speed will be ? July is -6 degrees below normal so far been more like late spring weather here all year.   Friday, July 17 View Page Here is my 705 dabacco. both pumpkins look like howard dill potentials. Again a little over 120 lbs. Now !   Saturday, July 18 View Page Day 15 on this steak house tomato ! Almost 13"already   Saturday, July 18 View Page Here is my mega marv on july. 8 so i will say dap july 7   Saturday, July 18 View Page Here is my mega marv on day 10 july 17   Tuesday, July 21 View Page My eating tomatoes are starting to come in now i picked 10 tomatoes this week and green peppers zuchinni swiss chard also being harvested already. Over all my garden has done great this year with this cool and wet year except for my pumpkins ! I planted them in the wetest part of the garden so the plants are a little stunted.   Wednesday, July 22 View Page My squash patch is doing good this year ! I have butter cup, butternut acorn zuchini yellow, and scallope squash in this patch and in the back are my eater tomatoes and their about 5' tall and my pumpkin tent. All growing in the middle of the woods.   Sunday, July 26 View Page SQUASH MAN !!! got kind of board so i stacked 3 scallop squash like a snowman ! And we now have squashman. Lol...   Thursday, July 30 View Page Here is a cluster of eating tomatoes. They are all wedged together between the cage and stems.   Thursday, July 30 View Page Caught my 9th groundhog today, hard to beleive that they are not the same ones. I drive them over 5 miles away across a free way with a 5 foot high cement divider that i know they cant get over so they are different groundhogs.   Thursday, July 30 View Page Here is one angle of my steakhouse tomato it seems to have slowed down a bit.   Thursday, July 30 View Page Here is another angle of my steakhouse. Day 26   Thursday, July 30 View Page At day 21 this is my new leader this mega marv is 18" in both directions.   Thursday, July 30 View Page This is my 559 fraley. Its now at 400 lbs and still doing 21lbs a day. My personal best is only 647 lbs. I think that i can beat that.   Thursday, July 30 View Page This is 1317 clements. It suvived but its white and rhe plant is only about 150 sq. Ft.   Friday, July 31 View Page Here is something i gave up on in june when all my plants were drowning the only survivor and a late set, but at least i got one. Hope to get a 100 lbs or more.   Monday, August 3 View Page I have an infestation of cucumber beatles all the time !!!   Monday, August 3 View Page Cucumber beatles eating the surface of my pumpkins too !!!   Monday, August 3 View Page My 705 Debacco is getting a little red coloring in it. Nice pumpkin, nice shape, nice color, around 200 lbs. To bad the plant was stunted by the june rains. The plant only had a few secondaries and anout 150 sq ft at best.   Monday, August 3 View Page A Groundhog is trying to make a tunnel in my squash patch !!! I need more live traps. I caught 12 so far and 4 in the last 4 days.   Wednesday, August 5 View Page I supose that this tomato will take me out of the novice group ? My personal best so far is only 2.41 lbs i think that i will beat that. Now im going for michigan record of 4.44 lbs by mark clementz last year. :0)   Thursday, August 6 View Page Finnaly a nice mega bloom on a slankard tomato. Been hard to get one to take.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Nice slankard tomato it looks to be a 4 or 5 fused tomato. It has doubled its size in just 2 days. I hope that this one is my october weigh off tomato !!!   Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is the top side of that same mega bloom.   Saturday, August 8 View Page SKUNK #2 not so scary this time around !!! This one was more alert and jumpy, but i still was able to crawl up tp the cage and open the back side without incident ! So the CRITTER COUNT is now at 12 groundhogs, 6 racoons, 5 baby rabbits, and 2 skunks. I also have 3 turkys and 2 deer that visit but they canot get into the garden. The only thing missing is a fox ? Smallmouth luke is one up on me their !!!   Tuesday, August 11 View Page Here is my first 3 lb tomato. Its off a steakhouse tomato plant.   Tuesday, August 11 View Page Blends in nicely with my eater tomatoes ?   Tuesday, August 11 View Page My 559 fraley is measuring at 520 lbs now. Hoping for 700-800 lbs.   Tuesday, August 11 View Page If this one does not make 4lbs then i will remain a novice grower ! If it reaches 4.45 lbs then bubba will cry !!! Lol... :0)   Wednesday, August 12 View Page Here it is mark !!! my 12 lbs tomato !!! i grafted all the tomatoes together to make one big one !!! Lol....(0:   Friday, August 14 View Page It wont stop growing !!! (0: i sware i can here it say FEED ME CHRIS !!!   Saturday, August 15 View Page An unautherized intruder entered my garden !!! It looks like DARREN C. DOG !!! Lol...   Saturday, August 15 View Page Long eggplants are doing verry good this year.   Saturday, August 15 View Page Competition tomatoes are doing ok. Need to keep up with the watering a little better.   Monday, August 17 View Page Now their is a nice tomato !!!   Monday, August 17 View Page Its a personal best, but not a state record. Its 4lbs 2.5 oz. But i will take it to the store later today to make it official.   Monday, August 17 View Page Its official my personal best 4.14 lbs.   Monday, August 17 View Page Last picture of my 4.14 ...:0)   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here is the top side   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here is the bottom side   Tuesday, August 18 View Page This scale is prety accurate after all   Wednesday, August 19 View Page Another 3.5 lbs. Tomato off my 5.30 macCoy   Wednesday, August 19 View Page Here is my 5 fused slankard mega bloom i hope it comes in for oct weigh off.   Thursday, August 20 View Page Eating tomatoes are still growing fine plant are about 7 feet tall and still growing well   Friday, August 28 View Page Plenty of eating tomatoes this year plants are reproducing non stop and about 7feet tall   Friday, August 28 View Page Here is a mega bloom on my mega marv plant that grew my 4.14 i hope i have enough time left ?   Friday, August 28 View Page Their are 2 marnarch butterfly larva on this butterfly weed ! can you find both of them ?   Saturday, August 29 View Page Picked another 3 lb today that is the 4th one over 3 lbs this year.   Saturday, August 29 View Page This one looks to be around 3.5 lbs hoping it can do 4+   Wednesday, September 2 View Page Well i got another 3 lb7 oz off my 8.41 MacCoy not bad for a single bloom.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page Hope this isnt to late for october 3 its a nice mega bloom on the same plant i picked my 4.14 from.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page So this is what a 6.5 lbs tomato would look like ??? Now i just have to grow one.   Friday, September 4 View Page This mega marv is crossed with the 8.41 MacCoy hope to harvest the seeds from this one ! Pollination took right away .   Saturday, September 5 View Page Not very big, around 600 lbs but i like the deep redish orange color.   Friday, September 11 View Page I always think that its cool to watch a marnarch crislis turn into a butterfly !!!   Friday, September 11 View Page Here is the butterfly !!! I tried to get it to spread its wings to get a better picture but he just flew away instead.   Saturday, September 12 View Page Here is another marnarch that hatched this morning ! Hard to beleive that this butterfly now has to fly all the way to mexico to survive for the winter !!! That is about 3000 miles from here in michigan !!!   Sunday, September 13 View Page Looks like a groundhog is tasting my big pumpkin !!! I hope that this doesnt start causing a rot now ? So close to the finnish !!!   Sunday, September 13 View Page This is how the pumpkin looked a few days ago !!!   Friday, September 18 View Page I will get you fur baring little varmit !!!   Friday, September 18 View Page I hope that im not too late ???   Friday, September 18 View Page Even my pumpkin is getting fed up with this critter !!!!   Friday, September 18 View Page Enough said !!!   Sunday, September 20 View Page CAPTURED !!!! GARDEN TERRORIST RING LEADER !!! AKA....PUMPKIN EATER !!!   Sunday, September 27 View Page Swiss chard is trill growing good for late season gardening !   Sunday, September 27 View Page Long eggplant is also doing good late season !   Sunday, September 27 View Page Small sweet peppers are also comming in good this fall.   Sunday, September 27 View Page Look at the size of this ROOT on my TOMATO PLANT ! It is over 6 feet long ?   Sunday, September 27 View Page Here is a close up of that same root. Almost as thick as my fingers !!!   Thursday, October 1 View Page Loaded and ready for weighoff this saturday in dundee !!!   Saturday, October 3 View Page Had a great time today at the dundee weighoff .   Monday, October 5 View Page Pumpkins turned out prety good since i gave up on them in early june after we got 5" of rain ! The plants got stunted swimming in mud so i saved my fertelizers for next years plants. I just let nature take care of them this year.my big one weight was 586 lbs. And the seed was a 559 Fraley.   Monday, October 5 View Page My Howard Dill Canidate !!!   Wednesday, October 7 View Page Time to plant the spring bulbs !!! I have 3 kinds of tulips and a yellow daffadill with an orange center. Hope to have a lot of early sping color !!!   Friday, October 9 View Page How late can we enter an early tomato ? And how early can we enter an early tomato ? Can we enter our winter tomatoes ? This one here may not be ready till november ? How can you turn down a tomato that is shaped like a heart ? This is a mega marv crossed with a 8.41 MacCoy. This is the same plant that grew my 4.14 tomato. I hope that the weather here hold on long enough for this tomato because i realy like to keep the seeds to this cross. Keeping my fingers crossed.   Friday, October 9 View Page TRICK OR TREAT !!!   Friday, October 9 View Page Looking for one of those 1317 clementz seeds !!!   Saturday, October 10 View Page Where is buba ???   Tuesday, October 20 View Page I got my pork chops today !!! Hope to get a sucessfull cross with the 7.05 big zac x 5.75 domingo. I will call it the slammer !!! Lol....(0:   Tuesday, October 20 View Page This is the plant light i will be using ! Now i just need to make some room ???   Sunday, November 1 View Page Sold this pumpkin for $300 in early october with the understanding that i would get my seeds back ?   Monday, November 2 View Page At least this tomato has HEART. But it sure is ugly ???   Monday, November 2 View Page I should call this cactus a HOLLOWEEN CACTUS not a christmas cactus ???   Monday, November 2 View Page Here is my holloween cactus   Sunday, November 8 View Page My holloween cactus is in full bloom now !!!   Sunday, November 8 View Page Well today i got my seeds back and their is about 290 good seeds !!! (0: not bad. This was my 586.5 that came from the 559 fraley selfed.   Sunday, November 8 View Page Here is the pumpkin those seeds came from.   Wednesday, November 18 View Page trying to grow a pineapple i started this summer ! looking good so far.   Wednesday, November 18 View Page here are my winter tomatoes now. plenty of time for a February TOMATO. my tip to others growing indoor tomatoes. keek nitrogen low and phosphorus and potassium high and as much light as possible when flowering. the hardest part is to get it to bloom and take !   Sunday, November 22 View Page they said that we were suposed to get 1-2" of snow yesterday i thought not likely !!! we ended up with 8" Wow !!! some areas got 12-16" unbelievable !!!   Monday, November 23 View Page the BIGGEST HOUSE IS THE USA !!! the record attendance is at 115,109 would be nice to break that record with ohio st. this weekend !!! (0:   Wednesday, November 25 View Page who needs a christmas tree when you have 6 foot tall house plants !!!   Tuesday, December 8 View Page this was taken earlyer last week. my plants were week and yellow?my light is at least 2 years old so it was over due to ne changed. these bulbs loose their spectrum and need to be replaced every year but i rarely remember to do it untill my plants begin to deteriorate.   Tuesday, December 8 View Page since i am short on space i decided to plant them all in a 10 gallon pot i hope that i don't regret it later, i guess we will find out. im not worried about size, just trying to make crosses. size is only a bonus.if you look close, i also put carrotts in the middle so they will take over when the tomatos are done.   Tuesday, December 8 View Page here are my little carrots i got an early start on Dan MacCoy this year !!! (0:   Tuesday, December 8 View Page also go an early start on gaint onions. i see that this is the time GAINTVEGIE starts his so i thought that i would try it to.   Tuesday, December 8 View Page Peter Glazbrook still started his onions one month before me so lets see how must differance it makes.   Saturday, December 12 View Page here is a top view of my tomatoes now. the yellow color is now going away and the plants are looking much better.   Saturday, December 12 View Page hoping that this pot will be big enough? if i have to remove a few of them then i will. but for now everything is ok   Wednesday, December 16 View Page my tomatoes are doing much better. this is when it gets exciting.   Wednesday, December 16 View Page starting to pick off the suckers now !   Wednesday, December 16 View Page the first flower buds are starting to show now !   Thursday, December 17 View Page yes i had a hidden camera catching those little criters in action last spring !!!   Monday, December 28 View Page time for TOMATO update ! here is the overhead view.   Monday, December 28 View Page Here is the side view ! plants are about 12-16" tall ?   Monday, December 28 View Page flowers are not developing very well ? only HALF of the plant have developing buds and the mega blooms don't look to promising? hope the single blooms make it if the mega blooms don't. with indoor growing you can't afford to make any mistakes and unfortunately i have made several??? i hope that i can still salvage this project, time will tell.   Monday, December 28 View Page these are just a few of the suckers that i have been picking off of many !!!   Monday, December 28 View Page CARROT update ! another experiment ? 50-50 chance that it will just go to flower when it goes out side in the spring ? but if it does, i can always use the seeds. i will probably start some new one's in February just in case for back ups.   Monday, December 28 View Page gaint onion update ! they are doing ok. i will soon be transplanting them to separate pots. we will see how they do under plant lights ? in the UK. they grow them in their greenhouses.   Tuesday, December 29 View Page i planted about 100 daffodill bulbs and 200 tulip bulbs this fall, but for some reason 2 of my daffodil bulbs decided to come up during this winter ? well up here in michigan their is no way they will survive the rest of this winter so i decided to bring them indoors.   Tuesday, December 29 View Page so here they are planted in a pot indoors. as you can see the wildlife has been feeding on then a bit.   Thursday, December 31 View Page last day of the year and my first blooms ! this is on my mega marv and as you can see they are rather week flowers ? i hope my slankard tomato opens up in the next two day to cross pollinate as it is the only one available.